I have a hard time on some projects with setting my own expectations for what the final product should look like. Do you guys run into this? I feel like sometimes I spend too much time trying to get stains cleaned that just won’t come clean and it takes up to much of my time and mental frustration.
See below picture for example. This is just a small section of a decent size retail center job. This was located in a semi underground parking deck.
Pic 1 is before any cleaning. Who knows how long the water, leaves, and filth have been just soaking into the concrete. There’s a drainage pipe coming into the deck that slowly drips water non stop, causing this constant wetness.
Pic 2 is after a ball valve rinse of the parking deck.
Pic 3 is after treatment with Pro Cleanse BC, and cleaning with a surface cleaner at ~ 180 degrees, 8GPM.
Those sentiment stains just didn’t want to break loose. I know the final product looks so much better but my brain wants areas like this to look “good as new” but I know that’s probably not realistic. Or maybe I’m just not using proper chems or there’s something better I should be doing treatment wise.
Thoughts? How do you guys deal with you own personal expectations of a final product?
I like the fact that you posted a not so perfect picture, takes stones to do that on this forum where some people can get a little nitpicky.
Tannins, that is what you are working on. Search on the forum for that for possible solutions. Next time you see it you will know what to expect and what to tell the customer - something along the lines of lessen but not remove.
I have to remind myself all the time that I can’t fix everything. All that is in the estimate to the homeowner/business. Under promise and overdeliver works.
Ya that parking garage was full of oil stains, tannins from the leaves and debris, and a mix of different stains, as to be expected, so I was caught up trying to pick which chems and methods to focus on cleaning. Ideally, if I had more time, I would have gone back over some areas again to try and treat the tannins after the oil and grime removal.
I have 2 more projects for this customer in the area so maybe on my next trip I’ll stop back by this garage and try to see if I can lessen those stains.
It definitely wasn’t a situation where I could treat and clean everything in one step, or so it seemed.
